Odisha HRD

All facade and no substance: An English visitor writes about private engineering colleges in Orissa

February 15th, 2008

Following are some excerpts from the article in The Herald, UK.

I found one building particularly attractive: the canteen in the style of a Buddhist temple. But when I went inside to try the fare, I was disappointed: the food was insipid, the interior dreary and the acoustics such that conversation was drowned out by a called order or moving dishes. One of the lecturers said to me: "This is your new college: all facade and no substance."

…

Typically, the colleges provide the education while an external university provides the actual degree. Thirty per cent of the final marks are assigned internally, and this led to a unique experience in my 30-year career in education: watching a colleague choosing numbers at random between 60% and 90%. No assessment was actually carried out.

Some departments ran what the students referred to as an "autograph" system: the lecturers actually prepared an exam paper, to be shown to the university if necessary, but the students gained their marks – usually a minimum of 70% – if they turned up and signed their names. …

Although some lecturers told me the chairman was simply posturing, accompanied by a senior professor, I went round all the classes advising that the days of fake marks were over. I prepared an elaborate set of internal assessment devices that were duly and diligently used by the lecturers. Some students clearly didn’t take my warnings seriously and absenteeism remained at its normal high level. A fair number of students received fail marks.

But what marks were actually sent off to the university by the college? What I do know is that, when the university published the final results, students who had been given 5/30 somehow or other got 20/30.

The colleges are responsible for 30% internal assessment but the remaining 70% is controlled by the external university. However, in Orissa, the "external university" exists in name more than reality and consisted only of a vice-chancellor and a few office staff. Crucially, the externally supervised end-of-semester exams were invigilated by a mixture of college staff and colleagues from other colleges and all of the colleges were in the same boat: they sank or swam together.

The Indian college system is a huge cesspit: bribery is the norm. …

Entry Filed under: Private Engineering Colleges